WASHINGTON, May 10, 2007
Tax Revenues Hit Record High In April
$383.6 Billion Collected, Helping To Lower Budget Imbalance
-
Interactive
U.S. Taxes
Find out more about where your dollars go, and take a quiz on filing with the IRS.
Releasing its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Thursday that through the first seven months of this budget year, the deficit totals $80.8 billion, significantly below the $184.1 billion imbalance run up during the first seven months of the 2006 budget year.
So far this year, tax revenues total $1.505 trillion, an increase of 11.2 percent over the same period last year. That figure includes $383.6 billion collected in April, the largest monthly tax collection on record.
Tax collections swell in April every year as individuals file their tax returns by the deadline.
For the first seven months of this budget year, which began Oct. 1, revenue collections and government spending are at all-time highs.
However, the spending total of $1.585 billion was up at a slower pace of 3.2 percent from the previous year.
The difference in the growth of tax collections and spending is the reason for the narrowing deficit.
The Congressional Budget Office said that it now expects the deficit for all of 2007 to total between $150 billion and $200 billion. That would be a significant improvement from last year's deficit of $248.2 billion, which had been the lowest imbalance in four years.
The federal budget was in surplus for four years from 1998 through 2001 as the long economic expansion helped push revenues higher. But the 2001 recession, the cost of fighting a global war on terror and the loss of revenue from President Bush's tax cuts sent the budget back into the red starting in 2002.
The administration's budget sent to Congress in February projects that the deficit will be eliminated by 2012 even if the president achieves his goal of getting his tax cuts made permanent. They are now due to expire in 2010.
However, critics say the improvement in the deficits will be only temporary with deficits expected to balloon again with the higher Social Security and Medicare payments needed as 78 million baby boomers retire.
While Bush sought to make entitlement reform the centerpiece of his domestic agenda in a second term, his proposals to bolster Social Security with personal savings accounts has gone nowhere in Congress.
For April, revenue receipts totaled $383.64 billion while spending totaled $205.97 billion, leaving a surplus for the month of $177.7 billion.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Stop having your taxes prepared by McTaxPrep shops in strip malls and get a qualified professional. Have a look at http://www.cpawho.com and search by zip code. Email a CPA and you'll find that s/he will cost you less after taxes than what you might think.
Don't blame middle America. Blame the invested rich Democrats.
"Collections are way up because the tax preparers most "middle class" Americans use are more interested in generating "refund anticipation loans" than in saving tax dollars.
Stop having your taxes prepared by McTaxPrep shops in strip malls and get a qualified professional. Have a look at http://www.cpawho.com and search by zip code. Email a CPA and you'll find that s/he will cost you less after taxes than what you might think.
Posted by cpaide at 06:39 PM : May 10, 2007
+ report abuse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No small wonder given that the middle-class Audit rates have also gone up....After all, who else is gonna pay for this senseless war???
Posted by truthspeake1 at 03:28 PM : May 10, 2007"
Who is in control of Congress? Democrats!
Who wants to RAISE taxes? Democrats!
Don't blame middle America, blame the invested rich Democrat politicians.
"Collections are way up because the tax preparers most "middle class" Americans use are more interested in generating "refund anticipation loans" than in saving tax dollars.
Stop having your taxes prepared by McTaxPrep shops in strip malls and get a qualified professional. Have a look at http://www.cpawho.com and search by zip code. Email a CPA and you'll find that s/he will cost you less after taxes than what you might think.
Posted by cpaide at 06:39 PM : May 10, 2007
+ report abuse
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No small wonder given that the middle-class Audit rates have also gone up....After all, who else is gonna pay for this senseless war???
Posted by truthspeake1 at 03:28 PM : May 10, 2007"
Later we find it was : Juiced and Fabricated ! ! !
Political B.S. - Thats all this is ! ! !
Wait for a couple of days -
Education is under funded
V.A. Hospitals are under funded
Health Care is under funded
ect...ect...ect...ect...ect...
How can anyone believe : Any type - of a Goverment report.
That's why Pres. Bush - Is borrowing money, from the Banks of China.
Because the Federal tax revenue is so great ! ! !
Dumb assed report.
Lastdance
Later we find it was : Juiced and Fabricated ! ! !
Political B.S. - Thats all this is ! ! !
Wait for a couple of days -
Education is under funded
V.A. Hospitals are under funded
Health Care is under funded
ect...ect...ect...ect...ect...
How can anyone believe : Any type - of a Goverment report.
That's why Pres. Bush - Is borrowing money, from the Banks of China.
Because the Federal tax revenue is so great ! ! !
Dumb assed report.
Lastdance
Later we find it was : Juiced and Fabricated ! ! !
Political B.S. - Thats all this is ! ! !
Wait for a couple of days -
Education is under funded
V.A. Hospitals are under funded
Health Care is under funded
ect...ect...ect...ect...ect...
How can anyone believe : Any type - of a Goverment report.
That's why Pres. Bush - Is borrowing money, from the Banks of China.
Because the Federal tax revenue is so great ! ! !
Dumb assed report.
Lastdance
Posted by mscientist at 07:42 PM : May 10, 2007
The Democrats do not advocate raising taxes, just allowing the temporary tax cuts for the very rich to expire. No matter how the rich try to portray that it is not a raise in taxes since the tax cuts were designed to be temporary in the first place. Allowing this tax cut to expire will affect less then 1% of Americans, so I doubt that uinless republicans tell bold faced lies about it (which they will) that many people will care.